


SILVER FOX

by Asher (GHOSTGUITAR)



Category: Silver Fox (original work), Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Animal Death, Blood and Gore, Death, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional Trauma, Fan Characters, Gen, Graphic Description of Corpses, Horror, LGBT characters, Manipulation, Trans Characters, warriors fanfic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-05-28
Packaged: 2019-10-16 01:08:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17539802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GHOSTGUITAR/pseuds/Asher
Summary: Hickorypaw, a young apprentice who has lost all hope after being treated as a disgrace to his clan by being the sole survivor of his patrol, who died trying to save their clan from famine after being called forth by a prophecy, finds comfort in the company of two like-minded apprentices, and after befriending them, decides to live his life to the fullest.Stealing prey, sneaking into enemy territory, and setting fire to twoleg nests, Hickorypaw, Goosepaw, and Sloepaw get into all sorts of trouble, but once some light once again illuminates the tragic slaughter of the patrol, Hickorypaw is hellbent on finding out just what happened that fateful day.Though the truth may be more than what he, or anyone else, ever bargained for.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work based off the series Warrior Cats by Erin Hunter.
> 
> GRAPHIC VIOLENCE, GORE, AND DEATH AHEAD, please read with caution if you are not okay with viewing depictions of animal death and violence!

‘ _ Five cats who bear the names of water, earth, growth, disaster, and life will journey to the place of cats worst enemy, and save shadowclan from destruction.’ _

 

_ This is the prophecy that our medicine cat, Lotuseyes, had shared with us before we set off on our journey. _ _  
_ _ We were told that by going on this journey, that we would be saving Shadowclan from ‘destruction’, which we assume means the horrible prey shortage that has been plaguing our territory for two moons. _

_ My only concern is what this ‘place of cat's worst enemy’ is- _

“Hickorypaw?”

It was Quakepaw’s voice that snapped Hickorypaw back to reality, his reddish brown tail shooting up into the air with surprise.   
“Ah-! Yeah, Quakepaw?” the tom responded, quickly clearing his head of his previous thoughts.

“Oh, nothing. You just seemed to be spacing out, you had a strange look on your face, it was kind of funny.” Quakepaw meowed, putting a paw to their muzzle to hide a smile.

“Heheh, yeah, I guess I was just thinking about what exactly we’re supposed to do on this journey.. But it’s just me worrying over nothing, probably.” Hickorypaw reassured her, smiling softly as they continued to walk.   
“I’m sure that it’ll be clear what we do when we get there, so don’t stress over it!” Quakepaw said, sounding cheerfully unworried, before racing off to catch up with the cat ahead of them.   
Quakepaw, a small, fluffy, reddish brown apprentice with dull lilac eyes and a fang sticking out overtop their bottom lip, the cat of ‘disaster’ in the prophecy, and Hickorypaw’s crush since they became apprentices just three moons ago.

There was no way to explain the way that Hickorypaw felt for them, it was like his heart was washed away by a powerful stream, only to wash up in paradise.

As Hickorypaw admired Quakepaw from afar, a voice rang out from ahead of them.

“Meatball says we’re almost there, everyone, stay on guard!” came Aqualight’s loud meow from the front of the group.

It had surprised Hickorypaw at first that Aqualight had been one of the prophecy cats, he wasn’t the most competent of cats, and definitely fell behind in his duties, most of the queens in the nursery had a list of complaints about him individually.   
But, he wasn’t a bad cat, at least Hickorypaw thought so.

“Here we are!” another voice, Meatball’s, had reached Hickorypaw’s ears this time.

Upon glancing up, Hickorypaw was immediately met with a large, iron wire fence, it’s dull gray colour and tall stature brought a feeling of foreboding and anxiety washing over the white and red-furred apprentice.

“Meatball, are you sure this is the place?” another apprentice, a muddy gray she-cat named Molepaw, asked.

“As sure as I’m a fat tabby cat, it is.” Meatball responded in a slow, drawling voice.

Meatball was a loner they had met along the way, he had heard their story and thought that he may know a place that could fit the description they were given, and Aqualight said they should check it out in case it was what the group was looking for.

“If Meatball says okay, it must be fine!” a small black she-kit named Sparkkit exclaimed, pushing herself up on Aqualights back so she could be better seen by her peers.

Sparkkit had been born without eyes, which always confused Hickorypaw.

_ ‘how could a cat be born without eyes?’  _ was a question that often crossed his mind when he was talking to Sparkkit.   
Regardless, he was glad she had been chosen by starclan as the cat of life, she was a bundle of energy and always seemed to be happy, even if she couldn’t see it felt like she was aware of everything happening around her, it was very uplifting for everyone in the group.

“Well… I don’t see anything in there, it doesn’t seem too dangerous!” Quakepaw pointed out, turning to Aqualight for his opinion.

“Let’s go in there and see if we can find anything, there’s no reason to stand out here and wait.” Aqualight agreed, starting to climb up the fence.   
“Well, my job here is done, then. I’m going to head back home.” Meatball meowed with a lazy smile, turning around and waving his stubby tail before disappearing into the undergrowth behind them.

“Oh, okay… Goodbye, Meatball.” Molepaw purred politely before scaling the fence as well.

Hickorypaw helped Sparkkit up the fence, and then climbed up himself, coming to a rest beside Quakepaw.

“Alright, let's get going then. Hickorypaw, you keep watch, okay?” Aqualight meowed, starting to shimmy down the other side of the fence.

“Ah- alright.” Hickorypaw nodded, watching his patrol drop down into the fenced area.   
“I wanna go too!” Sparkkit mewled, making her way down the fence and racing after the others before he could stop her.

That’s when he heard the barking.

At first, he wasn’t exactly sure WHAT he was hearing, but by the time he had figured it out, it was already too late.

“Aqualight! I hear dogs, you have to get ou-!” he started, whipping around to catch sight of his clanmates.

But he was met with carnage.

Screeches of terror tore through the sky like bird cry.

Blood and chunks of tattered flesh and fur painted the land with their jarring, messy colour.

The quaking sound of the dogs growling and thundering across the dirt shook Hickorypaw to his core.

“HICKORYPAW, HE-ELP!!!” Quakepaw’s strained, gurgling scream came from below, the felines body smashing against the fence as they were pinned under one of the dogs crushing bulk, making a horrendous squishing noise as their blood and flesh oozed onto the fence.

“Quakep-” Hickorypaw had started forward, but stopped himself.

_ Going in there would be suicide, I can’t fight off this many dogs! What do I do what do I do- _

His mind raced so fast that he began to shut down, his paws shook uncontrollably, so much so that it threatened to throw him off the fence.

As his clanmates screams started to become more choked and quiet, the tom was suddenly thrown from the top of the fence by a charging dog, sending him tumbling down to the safe side of the fence.

Blinking, the tom felt blood on his paws, and glanced up.

And there, smushed into the fence, was Quakepaw’s corpse.

Their muzzle and open eyes were squished into the fence, causing them to bleed, and their once brown pelt was dominated by a horrible crimson layer of blood.

Behind them lay what remained of the patrol.

Aqualight, Molepaw, and Sparkkit lay scattered across the yard, it was hard to tell who was who at this point as the dogs tossed the limp bodies around.

Hickorypaw could not bring himself to speak, to call out for help, or even scream, he only had one thought on his mind.   
_ This is your fault, you didn’t warn them in time, run, before you’re caught. _

And so he did.

Without so much as a yowl to signify his mourning, the tom bolted, his bloodstained paws left dark red smudges on the forest floor as he sprinted.

Vision blurring with confusion and exhaustion, Hickorypaw leapt over trees and rocks, birds twittered from the branches of the trees, it sounded like an execution order to the apprentice.

Hours later and barely holding on as the sun started to rise over the horizon, Hickorypaw raised his nose shakily to the air, the scent of shadowclan washing over him.

“Somebody…. Help….. M-e…...” he begged, his voice barely a whisper as he staggered towards the border.

The last thing he saw was a large, grey figure, before collapsing in a heap of fur and dried blood.

From behind the trees, a pair of flashing eyes watched as the tom was collected by the grey figure, before disappearing into the underbrush.

And thus, the curtains had unfolded on Hickorypaw’s story, and as he was rushed back to his clans camp by the unknown figure, and slowly lost consciousness, he felt nothing but exhaustion and regret.


	2. Barrels of Fire

Hickorypaw blinked as rays of sunlight poured into the apprentices den, his long, fluffy tail moving instinctively to cover his icy blue eyes from their heat and light.

“Get up, murderer, we don’t want you stinking up the den more than you already do.” came a harsh, nasally voice from Hickorypaw’s left.

“Suck my tail, Gorsepaw.” he responded coldly, he’d lost most of the energy to bother retaliating with anything else, this happened too often for it to matter anymore.  
“I’ll bite your damn tail off instead.” Gorsepaw hissed, shoving him aside to exit the den.

Hickorypaw merely sighed, shaking out his pelt before leaving the den himself.

Once he exited the den, he was met with the same reception as he always was; silence. No good mornings, no mentor to take him out training, nor even a simple nod in his direction to signify greeting.

Things had been like this for moons, ever since the failed prophecy patrol that led to the deaths of four other clanmates. Sadly, as much as Hickorypaw wanted to forget about that traumatizing day, nobody seemed to let him forget it, and he was shunned at every opportunity.

His former mentor refused to continue mentoring him after the incident, and Yellowstar could not find any volunteers to take his place, and with Yellowstar too busy to mentor him herself, he was left mentorless.

Despite lacking a proper mentor, the apprentice did admit it was nice not to have the responsibility that came with being a mentored apprentice, and besides, he didn’t mind hiding outside the training grounds and learning by spying on the other apprentices.

“Ah, Hickorypaw!” came a distant voice, snapping Hickorypaw out of his daze as he glanced around.

“Goosepaw, good morning.” he mewed, blinking as the large, gray striped medicine cat apprentice raced across the clearing towards him.

“Good morning! How are you feeling?” Goosepaw responded, shaking out his long pelt and sitting down.

“Lotuseyes said we were gonna take a break from training today, so I thought it’d be nice to hang out with you.” he said, licking his paw pad and drawing it over his ear.

Out of all of the cats in the clan, Goosepaw was the only one who would talk normally to Hickorypaw. It may have had something to do with Goosepaw being the one to collect him at the border moons ago when he’d come back from the patrol, but he didn’t know, because Goosepaw had never told him why.

“Well, I suppose if you want to we can go wander around the territory for a bit.” Hickorypaw responded, his tail swishing.

“Good idea! Also, I made a new apprentice friend, so maybe she can join us too!” Goosepaw purred, looking pleased.

“Oh? Which apprentice is that?” Hickorypaw asked.

“Sloepaw, you know, Lotuseyes’ younger sibling? Apparently they’ve been let off training for the day as well, so I figured maybe they’d want to hang out, and…” Goosepaw paused, a sudden concerned expression morphing on his face.

“I’m worried about you, Hickorypaw, you don’t talk to anyone besides me, isn’t it lonely when I have to train?”

Hickorypaw chuckled, shaking his head and softly digging his claws into the dirt.

“You think too highly of yourself Goosepaw, I’m more than fine on my own during the day you know.” he said, frowning slightly at Goosepaw’s somewhat hurt expression.

“Look, I know you’re all worried and whatnot about me, but I’m fine, Goose. It’s not like I’m not used to this.” Hickorypaw tried to reassure the tom, putting a paw on his shoulder.

“Right… well, if you’re sure, then I won’t bother you about it, then.” Goosepaw mewed, though he didn’t sound convinced.

“Anyways… Sloepaw is probably waiting for us out in the forest, should we get going?” he asked, standing up abruptly and smiling softly at Hickorypaw.

“Yeah, lets go, I’ll catch breakfast while we’re out.” Hickorypaw responded nonchalantly, trotting off towards the entrance of the camp with a smirk.

“Hickorypaw! You know the warrior code, you can’t do that!” Goosepaw nagged, chasing the smaller apprentices fluffy, mahogany tipped tail.

_______________

“Great Starclan, Goosepaw! You sure took your sweet time!” came an androgynous meow from the bushes as Hickorypaw and Goosepaw entered a small clearing, nestled comfortably close to the Windclan border.

“Sorry about that, Sloepaw.” Goosepaw apologized, his ears seemed to glow with growing heat from his embarrassment.

“Well, no biggie, I don’t mind just relaxing in the forest on my own anyways.” the voice presumed to be Sloepaw responded.

The feline stepped out of the bushes, revealing a moderately sized, off white cat. Bluish gray dots scattered across their back, as well as colouring their paws, tail, and an elegant mask marking that covered most of their face.

“I’m guessing you already know my name, and I don’t like introductions, so let’s just pretend we’ve met before.” Sloepaw said, looking at Hickorypaw before turning around and flicking their tail.

“Now come with me, I found something fun that I think you’re both gonna like.” and with that, they took off into the undergrowth, leaving a dumbfounded Hickorypaw and Goosepaw standing in the clearing.

“Well, there’s no point in staying here then..” Hickorypaw mewed under his breath, following Sloepaw’s scent with wide eyes while a confused Goosepaw trailed behind.

“There it is!” Sloepaw could be heard calling out from ahead, prompting Hickorypaw to pick up his pace.

Soon Sloepaw came into view, gesturing with a paw to him and Goosepaw to look through a small parting in the grass, and upon peeking through the parting, Hickorypaw was met with the strangest sight.

A large, furry twoleg, holding its front paws up to a small fire, which was contained in some kind of large, cylindrical container.

“That twoleg must be insane! What creature would ever put its paws so close to fire like that?!” Goosepaw gasped, gazing at the twoleg in astonishment as he leaned over Hickorypaw to get a better look.

“I know, right? But the fire won’t spread in that container for whatever reason, it must be pretty strong.” Sloepaw whispered, snickering.  
“That’s why we should steal it for ourselves!”

“St-steal it? have you gone insane as well?!” Goosepaw exclaimed, gripping Sloepaw’s shoulder and staring at them.

“Think about it! How cool would it be to have a fire holder? We could contain fires and our clan would never be in danger from their flames again!” Sloepaw insisted, standing up on their hind paws to grab Goosepaw’s shoulders.

“Plus, how cool would it be to have a big fire in the middle of camp that doesn’t hurt anyone? The other clans would know not to mess with Shadowclan if we had it!”  
Sloepaw seemed certain that this was going to be perfect for the clan, but Hickorypaw knew better. He could tell that they didn’t give two mousetails about the clan, moreso, it seemed they wanted more than anything to claim this fire catcher just to goof off with it.

“What's the worst that could happen?” Hickorypaw asked aloud, looking towards the fire container and then back to the other two apprentices  
“if something bad happens we can just give it back to the twoleg.”.

“Oh Hickorypaw, not you too!” Goosepaw groaned, shaking his head in exasperation.

“That's two to one, that means we win Goosepaw!” Sloepaw announced, patting the tom on the back with their tail before shimmying back up to the bushes to take a peek at the fire catcher.

“No hard feelings, Goosepaw.” Hickorypaw mewed, putting a paw on his shoulder before joining Sloepaw at the peephole, followed by a slightly annoyed Goosepaw.

“Look, while we were arguing, the twoleg took off! Nows our chance!” Sloe whispered excitedly, then they jumped from the bushes and sped over to the large container.  
“Geez, this thing is way bigger than I thought.” they said as Hickorypaw and Goosepaw came up behind them.

“How are we going to move it?” Hickorypaw wondered aloud, circling the container a few times.

“Can we just find out how and get out of here soon? we’re awfully close to a twoleg nest.” Goosepaw fretted, glancing from the nest to the container.

“We’ll just tip it on its side and roll it!” Sloepaw decided, placing their paws on the side of the container.

“Won’t the fire spill out?” Hickorypaw asked, putting his own paws up onto the containers smooth, hard surface.

“Fire isn’t water, Hick! It can’t spill!” Sloepaw insisted, shaking their head as if he’d just asked the dumbest question in the world.

“H-Hick..?” Hickorypaw mewed in confusion under his breath, he didn’t know whether it was a nickname or an insult.

“Goosepaw, come give us a hand!” Sloepaw ordered the apprentice, earning them a grumble as the tom followed their directions.  
“Ready? And… Heave!” they directed, pushing against the container with all their might, as did Hickorypaw and Goosepaw.

With a loud creak, the container started to tip, sending many bugs that were seeking refuge under it scuttling into the grass.

“Just a little more! Heave!!” Sloe encouraged, pushing once more on the containers side, and soon, with loud snapping and creaking, the container was now in the paws of gravity.  
“See, that wasn’t that hard!” Sloepaw mewed victoriously, sticking their snout up in the air.

“It was heavier than I thought.” Hickorypaw commented, rubbing his paws together.

“See, Goosepaw? I knew we could do it-” they started to boast, but was quickly cut off by a twoleg’s frantic yowling.

It seems Hickorypaw was right about the fire spilling, because it had quickly spilled from the container and set the twolegs nest ablaze.

“Ack! Look! I knew this was a bad idea, now the twolegs are going to hunt our entire clan in revenge!” Goosepaw yelped, dragging his paws down his face.

“Twolegs aren’t that smart.” Hickorypaw insisted, shaking his head.  
Unfortunately after a couple moments, Sloepaw let out a sudden shriek of surprise.

It seems the twolegs weren’t as mousebrained as they thought; as a large, glass bottle came whizzing past Sloe’s head and smashed on the ground beside them.

“Run for it!” they yelped, turning on their heel and bolting into the undergrowth as the twoleg prepared themselves for another shot.  
Grabbing Goosepaw by the ear and tugging him towards the undergrowth, Hickorypaw made a mad dash for the safety of the foliage, though not without a good deal of scratches from the previously broken bottle.

As they ran through the forest, wind pounding past their ears and twigs snapping at their paws, Sloepaw could be heard laughing from in front of them, followed by a yowl of joy.  
Goosepaw growned with displeasure from behind him, but moments later, a snort could be heard, then a giggle, and soon, the big, gentle apprentice was laughing along with Sloepaw.  
Hickorypaw didn’t know why, but for some reason, this moment made him want to smile, and genuinely smile; For the first time in a very long time.


End file.
